Bring Me a Dream

So, it's a weird story, but a true one:

I haven't slept well or soundly for about nine months. My insomnia started in August 2019 and has kept up its vicious pattern doggedly and insistently. 

During the last months of shelter-in-place, enduring a solo quarantine in the COVID epicenter, literally surrounded by a horrendous amount of death and fear, on top of the increased stress of teaching four different classes online, I found that my  insomnia worsened, and I realized I would go crazy if I didn't find a solution. So I started drawing at nighttime. Drawing before bed usually helps, and most of the pictures are not anything that was for work, just something to calm my mind.

​One such drawing, "Sleep", I made as an offering and a wish. In my online post I hoped that it would "bring on the Sandman."

 But...the thing is, it did.  First of all, I slept soundly that night for the first time in a long while.

Secondly, I woke up with this in my head, fully formed. And the main character? The Sandman, Dream, Morpheus...(a creation of Neil Gaiman for his comic series of the same name.). I had literally "brought him on." So, I woke up and immediately sketched out the story so it wouldn't fade away, as dreams do. But that, too, did not fade. It was a gift. So, thanks, Sandman, and Neil Gaiman, for the rest. I think the Sandman must be real. This was how that character looked in my own mind. 

(Made during weeks 9 and 10 of COVID-19 shelter-in-place, Queens, NY). 

"Bring Me a Dream" Jessica Boehman, Watercolor and digital. ​ Lettering by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios.  May 2020. See more details here.
​Based on the copyrighted character of The Sandman created by Neil Gaiman.
Do not reproduce. Not for sale.